This year, Paris is seeing one of its coldest winters in decades. The masses of snow have caused traffic and public transport chaos and have left thousands of people sleeping rough —many of them migrants— in life-endangering conditions. At the same time, the Macron administration is planning a further neoliberalization of France’s universities and keeps tightening French asylum laws and criminalizing supporters. Recently, in Nantes, Grenoble, and Lyon, refugees, students, and people in solidarity have started occupying university buildings converging these struggles. At the end of January, students protesting planned changes to university access and migrants fighting for a right to stay, housing and an end to the Dublin regulations have also joined forces and occupied building A of university Paris 8/Saint Denis.

These are their demands:

“Communiqué des exilé-e-s de P8”

To the French people, to the students, to those sleeping in the street, to people in solidarity, to people tortured by the Dublin regulation.

We are migrants from all over the world, Dublinned asylum seekers, recognized refugees living rough.
We have been refused asylum, have just crossed the sea, are undocumented minors. We have been occupying Paris 8 University since 30 January 2018. Why have we had to do this?

In the last months, France has deported many people. Many have committed suicide. Three months ago, a friend, depressed because of his Dublin status, lay down on the railway tracks and was run over by a train. Ten days ago in Calais, the police beat and gassed refugees sleeping rough. A young man had half of his face shot off by the police. A friend was arrested when he went to his appointment at the prefecture, then placed in an administrative detention centre (CRA) before being deported back to Italy. The French police have flashing lights, sirens and tear gas and are beyond the law.
The French immigration system only wants our fingerprints, not us. OFPRA, CNDA and the prefecture dish out daily arbitrariness and randomness. At the end of these procedures, without any logic whatsoever some of us are denied asylum, others dublinned for indefinite lengths of time, placed under house arrest and deported.

Our demands are:

documents for everyone

decent, permanent housing

to be allowed to learn French and continue our studies

an end to the non-recognition of unaccompanied minors (DEMIE)

an immediate halt to deportations to all countries, European and abroad

We want migrants across France to join us in fighting against oppression and injustice and against police violence in the streets. To the French people, you who carried out the revolution we study in history books, take it up again! We appreciate your support, which, unlike your government, shows real solidarity.
The university administration is negotiating with carrot and stick. First they propose to house us somewhere on the campus and then try to intimidate us with thinly veiled threats of calling in the police. We are asking Paris 8 students and faculty to support us in our demands. We thank you and ask you to remain loyal until end of our struggle. We are joining the undocumented student movement on campus.

To our friends who died crossing the sea,
To our friends who have committed suicide,
To our friends who died because of borders,
To our friends who died in the desert,
To our friends raped in Libya,
We will not forget you.

Donauwörth means deprivation of freedom and exploitation – for those who live there, or have to live there. In Donauwörth, the administrative district Donau-Ries, there is a reception center/ “Erstaufnahmeeinrichtung” (EA). According to the law, people have to stay there for up to two years. They are systematically deprived of all rights in order to force them to leave the country. Officially, it’s called “voluntary return.” No freedom of movement: Residence obligation (1). No freedom over the choice of daily food: canteen food. Massive exploitation through 80 cent jobs in the reception center. Deprivation of the right to work, instead: Reduced or canceled pocket money. Deprivation of the right to education. Deprivation of the right on health care, instead completely inadequate medical care.

Strike of the 80 cent job – the alleged aid organization Malteser reacts to this with threatening to reduce the pocket money. This means, on the one hand, that the right to strike is not accepted and on the other hand, that the pocket money, independent from the sallery, will be reduced.

People from Gambia from the reception center packed their stuff to go to Italy by train. Voluntary return? This is a cynical expression of the meticulously planned German racist system, that is supposed to force people to leave the country as quickly as possible.

The journey to Italy has been stopped. As far as Germany wants to throw people from the Global South out of the country, it is also forbidden to let them go. The Germanwide monopol for trains, “Deutsche Bahn” stopped the traffic around Donauwörth. Racist reactions, that it would have been the fault of the refugees, followed.

It is not their fault if they are on strike with the unworthy working conditions with a “sallery” of 80 cents per hour (2). It is the necessary consequence in the fight for an end of racism and thus the right to stay. It is not their fault that “Deutsche Bahn” stops the traffic. It seems more like a last attempt to exercise power, to prepare the ground for hatespeech against refugees and to avoid a scandal. Wouldn’t it been scandalous if people had traveled against the European Dublin law, under the eyes of German policewo*men?

Detained in a camp until the deportation is “allowed”. At the same time leaving the administrated district is prohibited. Working for 80 cents an hour. Canteen food. Poor medical care. Characteristics that are strongly linked to conditions in prisons. Waiting two years until Italy and Germany agreed on deportation to Italy. Loosing two years from your own life.
The strikers from Donauwörth announce that they will take action again, unless positive changes occur in the forthcoming talks with the authorities. Also last week they went on protest and sit ins.

******

(1) German law (§ 56 AsylG, § 61 (1) AufenthG) that forces asylum seekers to stay inside the district of the foreigners’ registration office.

(2) The Bavarian integration law created these working conditions for non-citizens, apart of the minimum wage for citizens.

As part of the African Food Kufa group, from now on, on our events we
will show different subsaharian films.
We are in Bethanien:
Every first and third Monday of the month from 19:30h
Monday 5.2 from 19:30h on, with the film "Ken Bugul (Niemand will sie)"
about the senegalese writer Ken Bugul.
The film will be OMU with German subtitles.
and in Bandito Rosso:
Every second and third Saturday of the month from 19:30h
Saturday 10.2 from 19:30h we will show the film "President DIA(Senegal)"
Also there will be an African Food Küfa, a refugee food project, where
the spende will go for the people cooking (hopefully it will become
a self-organised food cooperative)
The Küfa (Kitchen for all) is a possibility for supporting, networking and exchanging.
We would like to use the Küfa as a longterm possibility to support Asylumseeking Human-Beings financially.
You are welcome to join us!

I am Nadiye. I am the daughter of a Gastarbeiter (guest worker). My father came at the end of the 60ies to Germany as a minor. He is kind of an archetype of a worker – he has been working in the same factory since 40 years. He has been in the same enterprise and done the same work for decades. He is employed in the tractor industry. My parents are a typical couple from Central Anatolia, who lived in a village and moved to Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg to have a better future for themselves. Like a lot of other people today who come to have more possibilities for themselves and their families.

I am the first daughter of these two people. I was born in Mannheim and went to school there. I graduated from high school there – the first one in our family to do so. Then I studied, because my parents expected that from me, of course. They didn’t want me to grow up as poor and destitute as them. I studied cultural anthropology and migration research and learned a lot: about the history of »guest workers« and refugees, about the politics of the European Union and Germany; about the situation of workers in Germany and how they are treated, and about racism and discrimination.

I started to protest at a quite young age. The first protest I participated in was in 2001, against the war in Iraq. There were demonstrations and I just went there. The next protest I was part of was because of the studies. In Frankfurt am Main where I had been studying, they wanted to introduce tuition fees for everybody, and I knew: If these tuition fees come, again only white, German or European, rich people are able to study, and all of us – migrants or foreigners or people from the Global South – cannot study anymore because it would be too expensive. And that’s why I participated in many protests, but always as an individual. I wasn’t part of a group, because I didn’t really feel good in most of the student organizations. They were very »German«. I couldn’t identify with them.

Later I lived and studied in Turkey – quasi in the origin country of my parents. That was quite good. And then I moved to Berlin to finish my master’s degree. In 2011 a scandal became public: For ten years migrants had been killed by a group of organized Nazis. This is known as NSU scandal. When I saw that in the newspapers I was really shocked: Nazis got money from the German secret agency to have arms and kill people like my father. That made me very angry. I’ve started to organize myself in a group: with migrants and other people who experienced racism.
Ever since I’ve been active in the Bündnis gegen Rassismus (Alliance against racism) and doing actions against racism and the European border regime. Then the Oranienplatz protest camp started, of which I was also part and did many activities. I saw a lot of violence there – of the police, against refugees. All that politicized me a lot.

Now I’m still active in small groups and in the Bündnis gegen Rassismus. I am still politically engaged with the situation of refugees, but I also try to work with families who are affected by racist killings and who still fight for their rights. The fight for rights is very inspiring for me, because we as people who are not seen as Germans here always have to fight for our rights. And this is my connection to the struggles of refugees. I’ve never passed the asylum system, but I know what it means when you do not get everything for free and when you have to fight for your rights.

And this is why I’m always happy when I can collaborate with refugee and migrant women**, because we are facing many forms of discrimination at the same time and we don’t have access to many rights at the same time. For example the women* who were left behind through the NSU killings, they are all widows with Turkish origins who are now without family, without victims’ rights or compensations from the state. And many refugee women* also arrive here without family, or they are separated from their family but still have to take care of them. I think if we tell our stories together, we have more strength to fight for our rights together, and to open this society for our concerns. So that they finally understand that we have always been and will always be here.

In Berlin, deportations happen all the time. Every night, the danger of
police raids looms: people are taken out of their beds and forced on
deportation planes. This takes place all around Berlin; in refugee
accommodation centers in our neighbourhood; or in apartments around the
corner. While most of Berlin sleeps, the German border system enacts
its ruthless practice of expulsion with its horrible consequences such
as extreme poverty, confinement, persecution, torture and death in
those places that people obviously had a reason to leave.
Sometimes cops search private homes to find people listed for
deportation who hide themselves. Often they come in civil clothes and
arrests have taken place unexpectedly during appointments with the
Migration Office. There are reports of people being deported before
their asylum case has reached a conclusion. People who tried to defend
their dignity were met with handcuffs and violence. Sleeping becomes
hard when any sound from the hallway could spell danger. Under such
circumstances nobody feels safe.
When people are evicted from their homes because they are too poor,
stopped by police because they don’t look “German enough” and deported
because they are not of use for making profit; When the state unleashes
this kind of violence and the supposedly social-left Berlin government
just plays along, it is up to us to stand in their way. It is our
collective strength that can create underground networks of practical
solidarity. It is our involvement that can create environments where
people can feel safer. Let us not sleep through their deportation
raids, but instead organise ourselves to resist and fight for the right
to stay for everyone!
———————————————

It has been a long and intense morning with hundreds demonstrating on the streets of Kreuzberg to protest against the eviction of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule, against German racist and neocolonial asylum and migration policies, Fortress Europe, and deportations.Many thanks to all those today in support and solidarity for the people of the school, thanks to the activists and initiatives, such as International Women Space, Bündnis Zwangsräumung verhindern, Initiative Oury Jallou, Initiative Schwarzer Menschen in Deutschland, Corasol, Stop Deportation Group, Schlafplatzorga, Nachbarschaftsinitiative Ohlauer Straße and KuB for their powerful speeches at the manifestations in front of the school, at Hermannplatz, and on Oranienplatz. What is more, it was very important to have a speech of a representative of the Roma community. They used to live in the school and they were evicted on June 24th, 2014 to be distributed to remote places at the city’s margins, far from their local environment. Their children lost their structures, they could not attend their schools anymore, which led to a far more complicated situation in terms of education and to maintain friendship ties. Almost all of the Roma people were driven into homelessness again, some of them are dead.

After the last long negotiations with the Berlin senate and the district authorities of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg on January 10th, the remaining inhabitants of the school went out of the school building the evening before the set eviction date. After a first month in a camp Schöneweide, they will live in a container camp in Kreuzberg. For some, their asylum cases will undergo revision on the basis of §23 Residence Law – yet, as the so-called ‘Oranienplatz Agreement’ after the demolition of the Oplatz camp perfectly illustrated, there is no guarantee that this re-evaluation will lead to any granted legal status. It is important to support the people (e.g. accompany them to the authorities, etc.), to remain in touch with them and to stay organised and cautious about the senate’s and the district’s next steps. Supporters organised a crowdfunding campaign that that aims to cover most of the urgent needs, such as medicine, lawyer’s fees, and local transport, among others.

The political struggle, the local and international fights against repression, gentrification and every-day racism, against the backdrop of the capitalistic system continue. As was shown on the demo route of December 16th and January 11th, local fights in Kreuzberg against gentrification, daily evictions of individuals and projects, such as Friedel54, or against GoogleCampus in Ohlauer Straße need to be stronger addressed as linked to the fights of the lower classes, the poor, exploited and disenfranchised, the refugees, migrants and newcomers.

A second article in taz tries to evaluate the eviction in light of the political fight that has lasted for many years. Taken into account, the journalist states, that the majority of German society aligned with the mainstream media shows an obvious tide to right and conservative attitudes, the very fact that the refugee movement has maintained through the committed fight of political activists, can be seen as a (small) success. However, their demands and political goals – abolishment of the lager system, an end to deportations, freedom of movement for everybody – have been ignored.

Before the eviction, there was a concise summary on Indymedia of the history and the background of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule (in German)

The situation in the Lager of Mertenstr. 63 (13587, Spandau – Berlin), ran by the Berliner Stadtmission, is no longer sustainable. Elke Breitenbach and the whole government of Berlin are responsible of this situation.

Hundreds of people are still living there (some of them for more than 2 years!), waiting for this Lager to close, after their applications for transferring to permanent Wohnheim repeatedly rejected by LaGESO . The Lager should be already closed, because the conditions of hundreds of people living in this kind of hangars with poor living circumstances are inhuman, but the administration of the Lager, with the cooperation of LAF and the Berliner Senat, keeps the business running.

The living conditions are very bad, just as it happens in all the other Lagers. In this one in particular, the residents have been suffering from a huge psychological pressure, and there have already been several suicide attempts which succeeded in some cases. It is also quite common that there are drugs inside the Lager.

The administration of the Lager, from Berliner Stadtmission, doesn’t allow visitors of the people living inside. This provokes a segregation and a exclusion of the society that goes against every integration or
inclusion initiative.

There is just one common area with access to the internet, making it difficult to have some privacy. Rooms are shared with persons, and the walls are very very thin.

The rooms do not have doors which encourage thief to enter at any time and pick what he/she wants. This has repeatedly happened during the nights when the lights turn off. This leads also to security problem, specially if we have in mind that the security company, SGB Schutz & Sicherheit GmbH, is more interested in controlling the people living there than in creating a secure space. For example, when someone steals your phone, they tell you that you should call the police The conclusion of the people living inside is that this Lager is like a jail. In addition, the security personal is not professionally trained to respect human dignity when an incident happens, they use their power and pretend the person as criminal and most importantly the residents of the camp suffer such behave due to the fear that it will have a negative impact on my asylum case and nobody hears their voice because they are refugee.

The hygiene conditions are also very bad, as there are not enough sanitary installations for 600 hundreds of people living in the same space. The Lager is full of insects and diseases. Over hundred people made a petition for betterment of the living condition and complained over insects in the camp but the LAF did not care about their petition. The personal hygiene of the people is also not satisfactory: for example, the soap and the shampoo delivered by the Lager has such a horrible poor quality, that people just throw it directly to the trash.

The food is has been also a big problem in this Lager. There has been some protests against the low quality of it: in these protests, they refused to eat the food and a lot of people from different countries joined against these conditions. As in other protests, people were threaten to be sent to Tempelhof, and the threat became a reality for an African asylum seeker who organized was part of the protests.

They say that this Lager is a Notunterkunft, but some people live there since 2015. Therefore, the camp management (under the responsability of Berliner Stadtmission) should fulfil the quality standards set up by
LAF (link), but this is not the case. Some of the points where these standards are not fulfilled are the following:

There is not only visible First-Aid-Equipment in the camp but also very initial and limited First-Aid-Equipment available in the management of the camp. For example they do not have bandage for more than 3 people while hundreds of people are living this camp.

The camp management doesn’t ensure inspection of sports and playing facilities by experts

Some people didn’t receive the “House rules” of their camp in their native language when they arrived

People are not informed that their personal data is collected for financial calculations of the state of Berlin

People don’t know that their non-personal data is being collected to be communicated with the press or other written official requests

People are not informed that their data is used for their legal registration (at the local “Meldebehörde”)

They were not informed that there is a camera-system (CCTV) in thei camp

The room with medical assistance doesn’t have a sink, a soap and a disinfectant dispenser, garbage containers, fridge for medicines, examination table/bed, lockable cupboards for medical equipment, private changing area nor a bright ceiling lighting

The waiting area is not weather proof and doesn’t have enough seats

Near the examination room, there are no sanitary facilities

There is no playground for children

There is a sport area but it is not standard

There is no relaxation area

If the temperature drops below 15ºC outside at least for three consecutive days, the camp management doesn’t provide enough heating after 9PM

Hallways and circulation areas are not cleaned everyday

Towels don’t get washed at least every week

There is no public health authority (independent from the camp management) inspecting the hygiene conditions on a regular basis

There are not pest controls

In case of pest infection, the entrance and influx opportunities are not prevented, the building doesn’t get cleaned, and hiding places for pests are not avoided

When people arrive to the Lager, there is no counselling or guidance

There is no special support for people with disabilities, old people, pregnant and alone travelling women, single parents with minor children, victims of human trafficking, people diagnosed with mental illnesses or LGTBI people

People don’t get any support for integration (organization and coordination of employment, leisure activities, integration into the city society, entry into standard care)

How are people supposed to live in these conditions for years? We have no answer or comment in this sense from Elke Breitenbach, or Berlin’s Senat, or LAF, or Edith Tomaske, or the Berliner Stadtmission.

We hope that this and other Lagers close once and for all, and that companies stop making profit out of the health and well being of the people living in the Lagers. Stop the Lager industry! Decent houses for all!

We are proud to present a new publication of Daily Resistance and also new publication of our sister magazine: Frauen Stimme Magazine. You are warmly invited to distribute these in your sorounding and in the camps. Please get in contact with us for distribution. Daily Resistance@oplatz.net or stimmemagazine@gmail.com.

Below is more information about these publications.

1- Daily Resistance

This issue comes in 7 languages

The articles are written in English, Farsi, Arabic, German, Turkish, Urdu and Turkish. Unlike the last time, we have just one newspaper with all of the articles in it.

We have a new Farsi/Dari editorial board

A group of people living in different cities in Germany (Mainly Berlin, Munchen & Hamburg) has created an independent editorial board. So all of the Farsi/Dari text is comming from our new editorial board. We welcome more people to establish independent editorial groups and collaborate together on making the articles. As the outcome we have a special Farsi edition on deportation to Afghanistan.

Special edition: Deportation to Afghanistan

We have a special edition on deportation to Afghanistan. We have tried to make a complete picture of the situation by gathering information from different affected people. it is not a deep analythical text, but rather different perspectives from directly affected people. We reflect the voice of people who are in danger of deportation, as well as the people who have been deported and are talking about their life back in afghanistan.

This special edition is printed separately in Farsi (6 pages). So if you want it, please let us know separately.

A summary of this edition is printed in the newspaper in German language.

How can I distribute the newspaper?

Please send us an email on dailyresistance@oplatz.net .

In the email please write:

Your postal address

Your telephone number

How many copies of the newspaper you would like to receive

How many copies of the Farsi edition: “Deportation to Afghanistan” you would like to receive.

It is important to us that you understand, that you can get the newspaper if you don’t have money – especially if you live in a lager yourself and like to distribute there.

Money, Money, Money

We are still in need of money for printing. Alongling indymedia ban, we have also got into trouble concerning finances and that’s why we think more than ever, that our independent newspaper has to be supported directly by the people and not the institustions.

One copy of the newspaper costs 30 cents for us. It is a good hint, if you can pay double of the money that your order costs. Like this we have the possibility to support the people who can not afford to pay.

Our Account:

Verein ‘Mediengruppe’

IBAN: DE89830654080004950682

BIC (SWIFT-Code): GENO DEF1 SLR

Daily Resistance is the newspaper of “Refugee Movement”
We are a mixed group of people and activists in Berlin who fight against isolation and lagers in oranienplatz and other places.

Daily Resistance is a periodical newspaper on actual paper written by refugee activists aimed to reach people in lagers. We want to inform them on the state of resistance in Germany and to empower them for their everyday resistance against the system.

We like to thank everybody who moved the newspaper forward and invite all to join in the fight of breaking the isolation in lagers.

Stimme Magazine is a non-profit, self organized magazine for and about refugee and migrant women, created by a group of amateur journalists in Berlin. With our magazine, we want to provide a platform to make refugee and migrant women*’s experiences, problems and struggles visible and provide useful information for their living situation. Some of us have gone through the Asylum system or are still going through it, some experience racist discrimination. Most of us are women*. We are united in the wish to connect all well intended people interested in learning about and fighting against the various forms of discrimination and exclusion refugee and migrant women* experience daily.

In our first edition, we have talked for example about access to abortion in Germany, the stages of the Asylum Process, violence against women and portrayed a migrant women fighting against discrimination. Our next edition, coming out in February, will include articles about access to psychological help for migrant and refugee women, degrading living conditions in Lager in Berlin, contraception, information about modern slavery in North Africa, and much more.

If you are interested in receiving one or more magazines, contact us via stimmemagazine@gmail.com.

You might be able to evict a square, you might be able to evict a school, but you can’t evict a movement!
The GHS is supposed to be evicted on the 11th of january, 8 o’clock in the morning. The only offer made to the inhabitants was somewhat questionable and stands in the tradition of the so-called‚’Oplatz agreement’. This is another attempt by the Berlin senate and the district government to divide and conquer the refugee movement.

After the attempted eviction of 2014, an agreement concerning a self-organized international refugee center was made. This agreement was sabotaged and never taken seriously. This despite the fact that independent organizations, several associations and the neighbourhood initiative had come up with a concept, which included counseling services, a café, and a cultural and political venue.

The refugee movement has shown that refugees fight for the status of political subjects. Their demands for visibility and equal rights – denied to them by the white-German majority society – have encouraged and politicized groups, initiatives and individuals. Courage, solidarity, and shared political struggle are more necessary than ever in the face of constant tightening of asylum laws, the deterritorialization of Europe’s borders, racist and capitalist exploitation, and the European shift to the right. All people must have the right to decide where and how they want to live, irrespective of their status and origin.

“It’s not about the building, but its meaning. If you evict this place, it’s going to be a loss for all of us. We’re going to lose what this place could have become.“ (activists from the GHS)

The latest issue of Daily Resistance is out, coming with articles in different languages, namely Arabic, Farsi, English, Turkish, French, Wolof, and German. Have a look on the PDF (part 1 / part 2)
This paper is published and written by a diverse group of so-called refugees who choose not to accept their disfranchisement by the German state. Together with local supporters we look to inform and invite as many people as possible to break the isolation and to get in contact with us.
You can join and contribute to the newspaper as an author or join as translater, lecturer, editor, photographer, distributer, …
The newspaper is now ready for distribution! We are trying to distribute the newspaper european-wide. You are more than welcome to help distributing the newspaper in your city. Just get in contact with us and we organize it together.
This newspaper is an instrument of organization. Local initiatives play an important role in that practice. Every local initiative can form a Daily Resistance committee undertaking tasks such as distributing the newspaper, writing for the newspaper, produce news and visual material for it. But handing copies to the people is not the only goal. One should communicate with the people. Information on the problems of the refugee camps and ideas for possible solutions should be circulated. On can organisze events – film screenings, debates, reading activities – depending on their individual conditions.
We are acting with the perspective of alternative media. Therefore, we encourage the distributors and the readers of this newspaper to present their critique, proposals and contributions to the process. We aim to relay the information based on our experience of refugee resistance to the newly coming refugees and to anticapitalist and antifascist movement.
Taken from the editorial by Turgay Ulu

Freedom of Movement instead of State Violence. Call for Solidarity with the Inhabitants of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule

On January 11, the Gerhart-Hauptmann School is to be evacuated. Although it has become a little quieter around the Ohlauerstraße in the last three years, the relevance of the group’s struggles is still there. Long before the ‘welcome culture,’ the March of Freedom showed (in the demonstration of hundreds of refugees from Würzburg to the capital) not just the urgent need for change in the social interaction with refugees. The movement also showed that refugees can achieve the status of political subjects and represent their demands in public. Visibility and voice are traditionally denied by the white-German majority society; the police eviction is a part of this attitude. The squatters of the O-place and the school have thus had a significant and lasting influence on a whole generation of activists. The struggle was strong, courageous and lively. With the occupation of the Oranienplatz, they turned Kreuzberg for several months in an experimental space. With the hunger strikes at the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz and at the Gedächtniskirche they reached large circles and influence.

In the more than five years since the camp on the Oranienplatz, the activists had to face blackmail, divisions and lies. After the threatened eviction in the summer of 2014, the last option left to them was the threat of their own death. In the day-long occupation of the roof, they fought against a large contingent of the police and extreme pressure from the red-black coalition and the green district policy to obtain the right to stay at school. And despite the pressure, they remained firm and showed us how self-organization can continue. This struggle was one of the biggestpolitical movements in the history of the BRD. She was pushed into the background by the tightening of asylum policies by Grand Coalition and the nationalist movements around Pegida. However, the relevance of the movement did not decrease. On the contrary, the places of struggle shifted from the Gerhart Hauptmann School to the Balkan Route, to Idomeni, Calais or in the welcome initiatives and authorities in every German town. The movement from O-space to the school never stopped, it just changed place. Now it returns to school and thus becomes once again one of the crystallization points of our struggle for freedom of movement.

When on January 11 the police come to forcibly drag the former squatters out of their home, it is the culmination of the long-standing struggle of the inhabitants and supporters against the state sponsored policy of the Green Kreuzberg politicians. Contrary to the once agreed upon right of residence of the squatters, they were harassed as the state tried to regain control: security personnel restricted freedom of movement and judicially a forced eviction was sought. After more than three years, the Greens now have the eviction title they always wanted. We won’t accept this without making noise. The refugee movement has shown us what a productive relationship between the struggles of those directly affected and supporters can look like – also dependent on the concrete situation. During the last demonstration on the 16th of December, the former squatters themselves put their fight into the larger context of racist policies and capitalist urban policy.

Let us renew our call for solidarity!
check for latest news in the next days.

209 people from Sierra Leone on ‘strike of closed doors’ in the transit center Deggendorf

On Friday, 15th of December 2017, 209 people from Sierra Leone in the transit camp in Deggendorf started a ‘strike of closed doors’. In protest, the children and young people refused to attend the German class as access to other educational institutions is denied. The adults haven’t left the accommodation and denied to work in the 80 cents jobs. On Saturday, 16th of December 2017 they started a hunger strike. The protest involves 44 children and young people, as well as 40 women (among them 12 pregnant women) and 125 men. The starting point of the protest was the violent deportation of a man from Sierra Leone on Friday morning, which was stopped in the last minute at the airport.

****

Statement of striking refugees in Deggendorf

We are Sierra Leoneans seeking for protection here in Germany but have been frustrated instead of protected. And we have resolved to strike action based on the following reasons:

Every Asylum seeker from Sierra Leone in Deggendorf gets always negative results in the form of :

– No medication for immigrants for certain sickness.
And now established to us that this is a private camp and cannot allow any journalists.

On this basis we have started on 15th December 2017 a close door strike with no schooling and on Saturday 16th December and Sunday 17th December hunger strike and on Monday, we will be going to city council to get clearances to have a peaceful protest accross Deggendorf with continuation of no schooling and hunger strike.
This is to let the whole world know how Germany is treating the immigrants.

İzmir, a city where 120,000 registered refugees live, has a lot of meaning for refugees. For some, it is a stop on their way to Europe when passing over by boats, for others, it is a city they come to in order to find seasonal work on the fields.

Seasonal agricultural labor in Turkey is not an issue that started with Syrian refugees. For years, Kurdish workers, mostly coming from the east and southeast of Turkey, have been working in agricultural areas in the Aegean, Çukurova, at the Black Sea and in Central Anatolia. There have been dozens of academic studies, news and documentaries on this issue, and it is still being studied today. In every respect, seasonal agricultural labor is a great burden to workers and must be considered as injustice.

Seasonal agricultural workers are trying to survive in the face of many problems, including matters of accommodation and nutrition. Children, for example, have to work at a very young age and therefore cannot go to school, and women face many problems due to patriarchy, such as the exploitation of their labor. Before the arrival of Syrian refugee to Turkey, the largest group in the agricultural low-wage sector were the Kurds, earning 40-50 lira a day. The sector is still predominantly Kurdish, but now the Syrians have appeared as the even cheaper labor force. Farm owners prefer to employ the latter, because they are willing to work for 20-30 liras in order to survive. Hence, this creates tension between Kurdish and Syrian workers.

At least once a month, we – as The Association of Bridging People – visit tent camps located near the farm lands in Torbalı where Syrians work. The “intermediaries” play an important role in finding jobs for refugees who fled Syria and that live in various parts of Turkey. When farm owners are in need of labor forces, the intermediaries call different families and bring them to the harvest area. Workers are allowed to set tents on the edge of the field because this cuts down expenses, but they are obliged to pay rent for the place on which the tent is set up. As far as we know, the rent is 300 liras at the minimum.

View on the tents. Photo: Halkların Köprüsü Derneği

The tent areas are not in good hygienic conditions. There is not even clean drinking water in the area. With waters pulled from artesian wells, they meet the need for dishwashing, bathing, eating and drinking. They cook with simple gas cartridges either inside or outside of the tents. Toilets are one of the biggest problems. There are one or two rambling toilets for all tents, and everyone are using them. The risk of getting sick from the toilets is very high. People in the field cannot go to the hospital in case of illness, because they are not registered in İzmir or anywhere else – some of them do not have official “identities”. According to the temporary protection system in Turkey, a Syrian can only benefit from rights and services in the place he or she is registered in. In other words, if a refugee registered in Kilis has come to İzmir, the registration is useless in practice. Because of this, they often hear this sentence at the hospitals: “Go and get examined at the place you are registered”.

A young woman is making bread. Photo: Halkların Köprüsü Derneği

Women and children in the camps are exposed to the biggest problems. The women we meet work in the fields from morning until evening, if they aren’t sick or too old. When they come back from work, they take care of the children, the elderly and the sick, they do the general cleaning, cook food to eat or care of other burdens that remain.

Last year in November, when a three-month-old Syrian baby named Noaf died in the neighborhood of Eğerci Street in Torbalı, we, as the Association of Briging People, went to the region immediately. On the way, we fetched clothes, food, blankets and cleaning supplies that we thought might be needed there. When we went to the home where the baby died, we faced the worst living conditions we have ever seen. There was a ruin without a single solid wall situated inside a fairly large garden, and about 25 people with children were living in these two rooms of the ruined house. There was no toilet, bathroom, kitchen or water. They put a blanket around a corner of the garden and used it as a toilet. They stayed in this place because it was close to the field they worked on. According to the news, Noaf became ill under these bad conditions and had not been treated because he did not have any officially issued identity. When we went to see his mother, she looked almost dead. She had not slept since she lost her baby. She attempted to commit suicide twice before. Some of her female relatives living in the same place told us that they also had attempted to commit suicide. It was most painful to see that she continued to go to the field to work and to earn 35 lira despite her losing her baby.

While talking to the women, we witnessed their deep desperation. They told me that the place they stay in is hell and that it cannot be fixed. Half of the household are children; those older than seven or eight years old work in the field. One of the girls aged between ten and twelve stayed at home to look after the small children. In other words, none of the children of school age has access to education. When we went to visit them, four women who had just given birth were going to the field with their babies. They fed their babies during the break and got back to work. Because it is not easy to find seasonal agricultural work, they have to go to work if they do not want to lose their job. They do not receive a compensation for their labor, although their salaries are usually paid months later. Sometimes they have to comply with taking half of the money for their labor.

The locals started to argue with us when we were leaving the camp. They asked why we help the Syrians. They said that Syrians are actually very rich, because they send their money to Syria and buy fields and houses there. Their arguments were, that their place is very dirty, that running away from war is a treachery and that their ancestors had not escaped in the battle of Canakkale. While they were telling all this, a three-month-old baby living in the next house had already died because of hunger, lack of care and bureaucratic obstacles. They did not even know about this. A couple of months after our visit, the locals in Torbalı attacked the tents of the refugees and burned them. After this incident, which allegedly was the outcome of a fight amongst children, hundreds of refugees had to leave their work and property and run away. A story so similar to their escape from Syria!

This is a very clear example of how to understand seasonal agricultural labor of refugees. Think about what a person needs to live under humane conditions and then imagine you have to live without any of them. I am talking about a home, water, food, clothing, hygiene, education, social life, the right to health, and dozens of other basic needs.

Yet, for some refugees, seasonal agricultural labor is perhaps the only way to purchase some bread. Many refugees are working in this sector because they also worked as agricultural workers in their country. The farm owners are pleased to have access to cheap labor. But to rectify these conditions of misery, everyone – especially Europe – must act as soon as possible. To meet the explicit needs of these people, an urgent solution must be found, such as the establishing mobile registration centers and health care opportunities in villages or providing children with access to education rather than leaving them no choice but work in the fields.

Inside one of the tents. Photo: Metehan Ud

Makeshift Toilet. Photo: Halkların Köprüsü Derneği

A ruined building near the field. Photo: Metehan Ud

A woman is doing the washing. Photo: Metehan Ud

Women are combing out the tomatoes. Photo: Halkların Köprüsü Derneği